Snowflakes and Scars
by Agent Malkere
Summary: A relaps of sleepwalking causes Serenity to make a surprising discovery when she spends the night in the Kaiba mansion. oneshot


_**Snowflakes and Scars **_

_Agent Malkere _

**Disclaimer: Yu-Gi-Oh, it is not mine. All I own are a pair of Kaiba's socks which the Tie-Dyed Trickster emailed to me!**

It had been a very long day… and a very long night, too, for that matter. Heavy snowflakes drifted past the window of his room as Seto Kaiba wearily pulled off his long white trench coat and tossed it over the foot board of his bed. Midnight had come and gone long ago and all he wanted to do was rest, even if it was just for a moment. He leaned against the edge of his desk, standing on one leg at a time so that he could pull off his socks and shoes. The long mental wrist guards he always wore over his sleeves came off next and were deposited on the desk top next to his silver briefcase. He slalomed his way towards the edge of his bed not caring that he was no longer traveling in a straight line as he pulled his shirt off over his head.

Work, that's all he ever seemed to do – work. After days like today (or should he say yesterday?), Seto sometimes wondered if Mokuba was right. Maybe he was working himself to death. Seto was too tired to contemplate this idea though. As the young CEO's shins hit the edge of the bed frame, he fell sideways and forward landing face first on the clean blue bed sheets and pillows. One of his arms was draped loosely across the pillow to his upper right and the other hung over the side of the mattress, his fingertips nearly brushing the floor. His bare feet also stuck out over the limitations of the bed, dangling in an almost childish manner just beyond the reach of the covers. The seventeen year old owner of Kaiba Corp was unaware of all this, however. Seto had been asleep before he'd even hit the surface of his bed.

--

She was lost, utterly and completely lost. Serenity Wheeler sat down on the carpeted floor and put her head in her hands. She hadn't sleepwalked in _years_ – go figure that she would start again the one night she was spending the night in somebody _else's _house. Raising her head, the auburn haired girl stared out the window that she had collapsed next to. Outside heavy snowflakes were still feathering down from the sky as they had been doing ever since the end of school earlier that day – or would it be yesterday now? She couldn't tell and there were no clocks in the hallway to enlighten her as to the time. Sighing Serenity rested her chin on her knees and continued to watch the crystal white world outside and the snow building ever higher on the windowsill. It was such a wonderful view. If she only knew where she was it would have been even better!

Well, Serenity knew where she was in general. _In general_ she was somewhere in the Kaiba mansion, which more or less explained why she couldn't figure out where she was. Even though Serenity had been babysitting Mokuba for nearly two weeks now she had only ever been in a small section of the house and there was an entire wing that the girl had never set foot in before.

A small tired smile brightened her face at the thought of Mokuba. The younger Kaiba brother was so cheerful, so energetic, so full of life! He did everything with vim and vigor and always had energy left over to boot. He was so different from Kaiba that it was hard to remember at times that the two were actually related. It had been Mokuba who had talked his older brother into letting Serenity have this job knowing that she and her brother needed the money. Not that Joey knew about her job that was (well, he knew she had a job Serenity just hadn't mentioned yet who she was working for), but for now what he didn't know, wouldn't hurt him. Mokuba was also the reason that Serenity was spending the night in the mansion.

She had arrived promptly after school, as usual, and had spent a pleasant afternoon with the black haired preteen doing homework and being beaten at video games. By the time nine o'clock rolled around, the snow which had been falling heavily ever since she had arrived was nearly a foot deep and, having no car, Serenity was faced with the options of walking or hoping the roads where clear enough and trying to catch a bus. Mokuba, upon hearing her dilemma, had insisted that she should stay the night. If it hadn't been a Friday and if Joey hadn't been away for the weekend with Tristan and Yugi at a winter camp out, Serenity would have said no, but as it was and because the boy used his deadliest weapon, the puppy-dog eyes, on her she agreed. She had been nervous about what Kaiba would say when he returned and found her in the guest room nearest Mokuba's but he still hadn't returned by the time the two went to bed. Serenity had seen very little of her employer so far in all the time she had been working for him. He was never in the house before she arrived and rarely came home before she was gone. Serenity didn't work on the weekends so she assumed that was when he spent time with his little brother.

Using the window ledge, Serenity pulled herself to her feet once more and started to walk down the hall again yawning quietly. The corridor came to a dead end in front of a door that was halfway open. She peered at what she could see through the gap. The room on the other side was large but plain, every piece of furniture within was designed to do its function and nothing more. The predominating color of the place was blue – the walls were blue, the bed covers were blue and even the carpeting appeared to be blue. Sleepy curiosity made her push open the door a little farther and quietly wander in.

At first, Serenity thought that she was alone but then she spotted the pair of feet hanging over the edge of the bed. She crept a little closer trying to see whom the bed's occupant was, not noticing the metal briefcase sitting on the desk or the signature white trench coat which had been tossed over the footboard. Soft breathing could be heard coming from the sleeper spread across the top sheets with one arm dangling over the side fingertips just missing brushing the floor. Something about the position reminded Serenity of Joey whenever he'd had a particularly grueling day at school and an inhumane amount of homework as well. Only then did it strike her _who_ the sleeper was.

Serenity wasn't stupid; under normal circumstances she would have caught on the moment she peeked through the door but sleep deprivation has never been known for the wonders it does to the mind and slowed thought processes was only one of its many side effects. Her cheeks flushed with embarrassment as she suddenly realized that she must have stumbled into Kaiba's bedroom but she didn't move, just stood there staring. If she hadn't known that this was his house, Serenity probably never would have recognized him. Gone were all of his signature marks: his trench coat, the belts that were normally buckled around his arms, everything with the KC logo on it, his high collar shirt, his metal brief case, his infamous smirk, and even his icy blue eyes which were closed in slumber. There was also the rather distracting fact that he wasn't wearing a shirt. The young CEO's chestnut brown hair, normally straight and sleek, was mussed up from sleep and all in all the young man in front of her just looked drained.

_Teenager_, Serenity corrected herself mentally. _He's a teenager, not a man. He's only seventeen. _ She had never really thought about that before. It was hard to believe and easy to forget that Kaiba was still in school _and_ the youngest CEO and billionaire in the country, if not the world. He was in the same grade as Joey for goodness sake! She tilted her head to one side, thinking about this. The boy in front of her certainly didn't look like he was the head of a major corporation. Nobody who could look that innocent when they were asleep or had that many scars on their back had the right to be… Serenity's thoughts suddenly halted and rewound. Wait a minute… scars?

Serenity blinked several times and rubbed her eyes just to double check but the uneven marks remained on the young CEO's bare skin. _What…? But how…? _ Her thoughts came in jerky half sentences and fragments not making a fraction of sense even to their owner. The first coherent thought which finally entered her mind several minutes later was: _So _that's _why he always wears long sleeves…. _ That was all that she could think for a good while longer after that as her tired mind spun in circles trying to comprehend the implications of this. She had seen scars like those before on her brother; she knew they weren't self inflicted. They were caused by repeated beatings with a leather belt. After Serenity and her mother had left, her father had gone into intense depression and had become an alcoholic. He used to take out all of his pain and anger on Joey and seemed to almost enjoy beating his son senseless over the slightest mistake he made. Joey still flinched involuntarily whenever he saw someone taking their belt off. It had been a heart wrenching reality check for Serenity when she had finally found out the truth of what had happened to her brother after she had left.

But who would have guessed that Kaiba…. Well, then again, little was actually known about him before he had become the CEO of Kaiba Corp though there were rumors that he and Mokuba had been adopted. The tabloids and newspapers hadn't yet managed to confirm this theory because if Seto Kaiba didn't want something to be known it was almost guaranteed never to be found out. Psychological damage caused by abuse certainly did explain a scarily large amount about his personality though. The distrust, the icy exterior, his over protectiveness of Mokuba, the apparent lack of emotion, his need to be in complete control…. He'd probably been a sweet kid before this had happened to him.

Serenity let out a soft sigh pushed some of the auburn hair that was hanging in her face behind one ear. Silently she slipped out of the room again leaving the teenager to his sleep. Maybe, deep down, Kaiba wasn't such a bad person after all. Maybe he deserved to have someone like her give him a second chance.

_A/N: Thanks for reading and I hoped you enjoyed it! Please review! I love hearing what y'all think!_


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